Hank Fischer

Hank holds an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, where he studied wildlife biology and journalism. From 1977-2002, Hank covered the Northern Rockies (Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming) for Defenders of Wildlife. He has been intensively involved with endangered species restoration, particularly with efforts involving wolves, grizzly bears, and black-footed ferrets. In 1987, he created Defenders of Wildlife’s Wolf Compensation Trust, which uses private funds to compensate livestock producers for verified livestock losses caused by wolves. In 1997, he created a similar program for grizzly bears. Since 2002 he has led NWF's Wildlife Conflict Resolution project, which retires grazing allotments that experience chronic conflict with wildlife. To date the project has been responsible for the retirement of thirty grazing allotments totaling more than 550,000 acres, all in the Yellowstone ecosystem. (http://www.nwf-wcr.org/)

Hank was a leader in the ten-year effort to restore wolves to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. He chronicled this watershed conservation event in his 1995 book, Wolf Wars. More recently, he led a collaborative effort between conservationists, the timber industry, and organized labor to restore grizzly bears to central Idaho.